CHAPTER IV 



A SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT AND ARRANGEMENT OF 



the pilobolidae 

 Contributed by W. B. Grove 



Introductory Remarks — Historical Account — Systematic Arrangement — - 



Bibliography 



Introductory Remarks. — The section of the Mucorini entitled 

 Pilobolidae includes only two genera, Pilobolus and Pilaira. In 

 1884 the writer of this chapter published a Monograph of the Pilo- 

 bolidae, in which he gave a systematic arrangement of the ten species 

 which had been up to that time described. This arrangement was 

 followed by Saccardo in the seventh volume of his Sylloge Fungorum, 

 pp. 184-189, and has since been revised by Palla and Morini.^ 



The writer's personal knowledge of the Pilobolidae in England 

 is based upon the forms called Pilobolus crystallinus, P. Kleinii, 

 P. sphaerosporus , P. oedipus, and Pilaira anomala, and in addition 

 he has seen Pilobolus longipes and P. umbonatus, which have been 

 found in Canada as shown by Professor Buller in preceding chapters 

 of this volume. The six forms of Pilobolus just mentioned, as well 

 as Pilaira anomala, P. nigrescens, P. Saccardiana, and P. Moreaui, 

 may probably be regarded as definitely established species ; in 

 regard to most of the others there remains a certain doubt which 

 can only be removed when some one has devoted to the group 



^ This account of the Pilobolidae, written at the request of my friend Professor 

 Buller, may be considered to be a revision of the systematic part of the Monograph 

 of the Pilobolidae which I published in the Midland Naturalist exactly fifty years ago. 

 Professor Buller has been good enough to give me the benefit of his assistance in 

 defining the group and the genera, in revising the descriptions of certain species, 

 and in preparing the illustrations. — W. B. G. 



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